NPR Music - All Songs Considered: Charli xcx, Mike D, Boards of Canada

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

Our latest mix of the best new tracks this week includes a massive eye-roll from Charli xcx, the first-ever solo music from Mike D of the Beastie Boys, another surprise drop from electronic music icons Boards of Canada, and more.NPR Music’s Lars Gotrich joins host Robin Hilton.Leave us a glowing review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And tell a friend to listen!Questions, comments, suggestions or feedback of any kind always welcome: [e-mail] artists and songs:(00:00) Intro(01:18) Charli xcx: “Rock Music” (Single)(07:30) Starflyer 59: “I’m Disappointed” from Disappointed EP(12:22) Mike D: “Switch Up” (Single)(19:53) Black Swan Network: “The Shell” from The Early Music, Vol. 1(25:30) Hannah Cohen: “Golden Chain” (Single)(31:55) Boards of Canada: “Introit/Prophecy At 1420 MHz” from InfernoSee pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

What are we doing here? I don't know. A show? I guess so. This episode of all songs considered comes to you from the NPR Music podcast, where you will find this show. New episodes of this show. Every Tuesday, we've got Alt Latino every Wednesday. And, of course, New Music Friday closes out every week.

NPR Music also home to Tiny Desk Editor and Curator of All Things Loud and Soft. And Soft. I don't like the dramatic pause. And Soft. Lars Gottrich. Hey, Robin. So we nerd out about all kinds of music stuff on this show on All Songs Considered. Sometimes it's a debate about a band or some trend or something like that.

Or sometimes it's a conversation like the one we had recently with Beck. And sometimes it's just to play the music that we're loving and to share it with each other. We keep a running list of the best new tracks of the year and we like to update it every other week or so. That's what we're doing on this episode of All Songs Considered. we each brought some stuff. Lars, I am certain that whatever you brought is next level. Oh, okay. But I actually want to, you don't sound very convinced.

What the expectation just suddenly like, shut up. But if it's cool with you, I thought I would start us off here with a brand new song that we got at the end of last week, the new one from Charlie X, CX, which you've heard, I'm guessing. Yeah. I wondered if you're going to play this song. Okay, well, we'll have a good discussion here about it then. It's called rock music. I'll just sit it here and we can talk about it when we come back.

Me and my friends. We go out. We take pictures and make stuff together. And sometimes we cry. We kiss each other. We're incestuous vibes. I like that. Yeah, we're so he's fine.

Basically all the time. I forgot it's off. I think the song's kind of I think the song's kind of brilliant. Okay. But you clearly have some issues with it. So I want to hear what you think, and then I'm going to tell you while you're wrong. Thanks. For the record, I actually really do like Charlie X-EX.

I've been following her career basically since I think her debut album. Yeah. She's always been good at challenging the status quo of what pop music is. For sure. And I've really appreciated that about her career. During Brat Summer, I got a little, I think like a lot of people, it kind of wore out its welcome. Just Charlie fatigue. Yeah.

So here she is playing with the idea of rock music as a pop singer, as a subverter of pop music. Right. And I don't have a problem with that generally. I think the thing that I'm reacting to is that her tongue is placed so firmly in cheek that it's popped out by the other side. Oh, man. I agree, but I mean, I think that's what I like about this. Sure. Well, let's hear what you have to say.

Well, I don't know. I think it's fair to say that this song is fairly cynical. I mean, it is loaded with sarcasm. Sure. I think you can see the side eye and the eye rolls from space in this song. But I think it's so appropriate for some of the themes that she's getting into here, which I think this is, it's very much directed at the selfie generation. Sure. You know, the whole vibe is just like she's just so indifferent to everything.

We're trying so hard to be cooled and to care and we just don't. I think that there's this thing that she, this statement that she's making about our shortened detention spans and our inability to really engage deeply with anything going through the motions of life. Just the fact that she says, wow, I'm really rocking out. You know, my head, I'm really banging my head. My neck kind of hurts. You know, it's just like, I think that it's kind of a brilliant take on very current times. I think you can be detached in rock music in a way that doesn't feel like you are making fun of everybody who listens to it, which is for me what she's crossing over into.

little bit. So like I think about the most obvious example would be something like the Velvet Underground. Okay. Where it's like, we read, it's like, it's just sarcastic as hell. But he is owning it in a way that is part of it that you would say the Velvet Underground, for example, you can tell they still, they really love rock as they do that. And in this case, you don't get that. You just think, because I didn't take it as an assault on rock as much. Yeah. I don't know. I think, I don't know. feels superficial in a way that, like, I don't think maybe she intends. And I hear you, a song is kind of a response to the selfie generation or whatever. And this is why the song

also feels just kind of like an interlude. I think that's intentional. I think that she cuts it off at the end there. Like, we can't even be bothered with content that is more than a minute and 45 seconds or whatever this song is. I think a lot of people forgot this, but at one point, she was going to put out a rock album, like, well over a decade ago. Has it been that long? I mean, because she told Vogue magazine that the dance floor is dead. Right. And, I mean, she even says that in this song, you know, like, so, I mean, no word on an

album, we just have this song, but, like, are you finally working on your rock album? It was, I'm trying to remember what era this would have been, but she did an interview with Scott Simon on, on, like, one weekend edition many years ago. Very rock and roll. And it's actually fairly, it's like a good interview, but she, she, you know, she, mentioned in that interview, it's like, yeah, I, I recorded and scrapped a whole pop punkish rock record, and nobody's ever going to hear it. So Charlie, XX, rock music, the song, just the one-off single for now.

Where do you want to go, Lars? What do you got for me? I want to play some rock music. You're going to play real rock music. All right. All right. I'm going to kick it. So you don't want to tell me what this is.

You just want to hit it and we can... Yeah, I just want to hit it. Okay. All right, you got me. I mean, that rips. So I have no idea what it is. That is Star Flyer 59. Oh.

One of my favorite bands of all time. They've been around for well over 30 years at this point. And on 5-9, so just this past weekend, May 9th, there's an unofficial holiday among Starfire 59 fans like myself where, yeah, we just listened to Starfire 59 songs on 5-9. So they dropped a new song on Saturday this past Saturday. Oh, wow. And it's called Disappointed. So that's a band that I have. not thought of in a really, really long time.

Clocked him a little bit in the 90s, but have they stayed active and been putting out stuff? I mean, it's basically the work of one person, Jason Martin, and he just never stopped. He just kept putting out records. And, you know, when you have a favorite band, you kind of stick with them through the thick and thin, basically. And there is like a period of time where, yeah, it was a little thin. There's still stuff I liked. Yeah.

But in the last five years, Jason Martin's been really on a strong run. This comes from a new EP. It's got some great spring reverb. It's probably the fastest I've ever heard him play. It sounds like a Ramon song a little bit. There's a lot of great clang. And in a typical Jason Martin fashion, it's full of Enwi. I mean, this is a great companion piece, actually, to the Charlie X, CX.

Because they're both thematically similar in that, I mean, just the disappointed, This song is it's a little deadpan too, right? You know, and exhausted and just tired of everything. But there's an urgency in it, and it's unambiguously punk, kind of a new wave punk. But, you know, there's nothing ironic about it. He's just going for it. I mean, this is like, this is the whole Jason Martin M.O. It's just kind of like he's one of the most brilliant craftsmen of rock music.

from my lifetime, but he gives off the air of not caring. Right. Which is not true. No, I know what you mean. But, but like he's just kind of like, hey, I made some songs. Yeah. Bro. So Starflyer 59, yeah, and the song was Disappointed.

It's called I'm Disappointed. And it'll be on an EP called Disappointed. And there'll be a new album at some point, probably later this year. Did you see that Mike D has a new song out? From Beastie Boys? Yeah. No, I didn't. Yeah. Mike D. of the Beastie Boys dropped a solo song last week on Friday.

This is the first solo music of any member of the Beastie Boys. I was about to say, I couldn't think of, arranging my, racking my brain a little bit. I was like, has anybody put up a solo stuff? No. First solo music of any of the members, first music from that whole world at all since Adam York died, MCA died in 2012. Honestly, I was a little skeptical when,

I heard that Mike D. was coming out with a song. Not because I don't think he is an amazing artist. I think he is an amazing artist. But just the idea of anything from the Beastie Boys universe existing outside of the Beastie Boys. Yeah. It was kind of hard to get my head around. But when I heard this new song, I was all in.

Okay. It's called Switchup. I don't know what I was expecting, but I wasn't expecting to hear. at the early 90s London electronic music scene? Yeah, I mean, he's doing, you know, there are a lot of, I think, I would call maybe familiar touchstones from his time with the Beastie Boys, a lot of genre mashing up going on. It's very loose.

It's very DIY sounding. But I think this does so many things well. It's not just a nostalgia trip. In fact, I don't even, it doesn't sound like a nostalgia trip at all. And it doesn't sound like he's just trying to. recreate what he did with the Beastie Boys, you know, like, especially when I think of some of the early Beastie Boy stuff that I really loved. You know, this, this is not rap rock. A lot of that stuff that I really loved in the 90s was just, it was borderline goofy, you know, just so playful.

Sure, yeah, yeah. And, you know, them just hamming it up. And at the same time, just being so cool, because the beats were so sick. And the flow was so sick. They took their goofiness very seriously. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, if you had told me that this band of Beastie Boys, when they dropped Fife Your Right to Party, which I did not like that song when it came out in the 80s, I was in high school at the time, like, if you had told me, this band will go on to be one of the most revered and respected hip-hop groups, rap groups of all time, and make the kind of music that you will talk about decades later. I mean, I never would have believed it. But they did. And I think this is. I mean, this is a great next step for him, I think. Yeah, I'm curious if he's going to keep making music in his fame, it is hitting on, like, the prodigy and the Chemical Brothers. It's moody. And, like, a massive attack toward the end there.

Oh, yeah. But I like hearing his voice in that context. I don't think I'd ever really thought of him as, like, a big beat kind of guy. Yeah. It's also just fun to, like, re-contextualize Mike D. Outside of Beastie Boys, which is, I think what you were talking about earlier was, like, I can't even imagine what he sounds like outside of this institution, really. For sure.

Yeah, I mean, that was the sort of hurdle that I had to get over. And then once my brain made that shift, I was able to hear this. And yeah, I really love it. And I'm very excited to see where he goes from here. It's no word on an album, just this one song. But he's been playing some live shows, just a handful here and there that have been selling out in seconds. So if that tells you anything about whether or not people are ready to hear, what Mike D is doing, people are ready for this.

That's exciting. That's really cool. It really is. So I checked out Spotify when this song first dropped, I looked at Mike D. Zero monthly listens. Because it was the first thing. First thing. It has since gone up to tens of thousands of monthly listens, but I thought that's amazing.

Zero monthly listens, Mike D, because this is the first thing he's ever done. Again, that song was called Switchup. So this is a song that I really want to play for you, and I'm not going to introduce it again. All right. Let's do it. Where did you find that? Where did you dig that up? So for folks who don't know, that was well-colon heart under the Black Swan Network moniker. So not Olivia Trimmer Control. It's not Olivia Trimmer Control. It's not circulatory system.

He had another name that he worked under in the 90s called Black Swan Network. It was basically just another name. Yeah, I mean, when I heard his voice, I instantly knew who he was. There was the biggest smile on your face, and that's what I was looking for. Yeah, well, I'm happy to oblige. Because I love Olivia Trimmer Control, and for people who don't know, they're part of this sprawling collective of artists and musicians kind of had their biggest run in the 90s to early 2000s that included Olivia Trimmer Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, Apples and Stereo, countless other bands. But Olivia Trimmer Control and then later circulatory system, they really haven't done anything in a long time. And Will Kolanheart has since passed away.

Yeah. He died in 2024, and I got an email from Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records, saying that we have like a new Black Swan Network record. Wow. And I say, can I please premiere this song? Wow. It's called The Shell. That's the name of the song. These are recordings.

Half the record is singles that came out. And the second half, which is what I played the song from, is. completely unreleased. Yeah. And these songs would have been written and recorded between Olivia Tremor Control the first time they kind of like broke up. Yeah. And right before the formation of circularitor system. So this would have been about year 2000.

I mean, the whole way that they made music, that whole, honestly, just about the entire sprawling Elephant Six collective, it was very ramshackled, DIY, on the fly. everyone in a room together just like hitting tape you know buttons on tape recorders and effects and things like that and it had such an improvised feel to it and they were always

making music like that my assumption has been all along that there must be hours and hours and hours and hours of unreleased stuff I mean I was told that if they hadn't cut this down it would have been a box set yeah so they're like let's let's just start with this for now

I hear so much music these days that is being made in a similar way. And maybe it's being done digitally. All this stuff was done on four-track tape. Right. So you can hear, if you listen closely to the song we just played, you can hear creaking footsteps. Yeah. You hear somebody coughing. But I hear all of that happening in music now. And it's wild to me how not only influential but present, well, Colin Hart and all that group of people were. and how bedroom, how you could make the most beautiful and strangest music imaginable just in your bedroom with a microphone and a tape recorder, and that was it. Yeah. What was it called again, Black Swan Network, but what was the song? The song is called The Shell, and it's on an album called The Early Music, Volume 1.

Well, I got one more that I want to play, and this is a discovery for me this week, which means you've probably been listening to it for years. I don't know, but it's a singer named Hannah Cohen. Do you know Hannah Cohen? The name rings it, though. So she's a singer from New York in the Catskills. She's actually been putting out music for like 15 years or something, and somehow I've managed to miss her work until now. I think she got the most traction for an album that she put out last year.

It was called Earth Star Mountain. I know World Cafe was really into that record. But she's back with new music, just a single that I have had on repeat. It's called Golden Chain, Golden Chain. I'm not even sure what you would call this music. Maybe psych folk or something. I don't know. You can see what you think.

But I'll hit it here and then we can talk more about it. Oh, then those internet girls you do, and the end was chasing of some girls, you're rather devastate than tell the whole truth. And I kept quiet as long as I could, I said. The art we had was good And you threw it all You're just gonna cause your pain

There's nowhere else to go I mean if you like wondrous worlds of sound Kind of like what you get with The Black Swan Network or some of that stuff There's all this little stuff going on in the background And at the same time very spare, right? Yeah But right out the gate

Her voice is super arresting to me And I know you really love Jessica Pratt That kind of hit and a little maybe like Josephine Foster. Oh, I'm thinking Faye Webster maybe. Yeah, like there's like a warmth, but there's a warble to the quality of her voice. Like I, the way that the song kind of was constructed, I wrote down just now, it's like, it sounds like she's in no rush, but time seems unstable. Yeah, there's a lot of dysfunction in this song, actually.

The more you dig into the lyrics, she's clearly singing about someone who's, very broken, who has a drinking problem, has commitment issues, you know, she sings right at the top, I want to matter more to you than those girls on the internet do, you know, more than the booze, you know, while you're out there chasing your youth. And I think the thing that's interesting about it, and this is something I think Jessica Pratt does really, really well, which is it's both in and out of time. It's just as easy to imagine this crooning out of an old tuberant. And radio in the 1930s or 40s as it is to imagine it drifting in from the future somehow. Sure.

I really like that. That was lovely. It's a name that I've heard, Hannah Cohen. Hannah Cohen, yeah. It's a name of her, but I don't know that I've ever sat down with it. Well, now I've got something I've got to listen to. Yeah, and like I said, she's been putting out stuff for like 15 years. So I also, I need to go back and start digging into her past catalog because, and that, especially

that record that came out last year that everyone was loving and I somehow missed Earth Star Mountain. But I love it. And that whole breakdown at the end, too, where she's just singing, you do, you do, you do over and over again. That always works on me. Kind of like an early doo-wop kind of like the flamingos. I only have eyes for you. Like where it's very dreamy and maybe a little disturbing. Yeah, with those little trippy like Melotron flutes.

Yeah, love it. So the song again is called Golden Chain, which I like to think that that's a reference to the gold chain that this person she's talking about is wearing. Well, if you're into people with gold chains, I don't know. That might be a you problem. I don't know. Or golden chain, or maybe it's a comment, actually now that I think about it. Maybe it's a comment on chaining yourself to all of these things that aren't good for you.

The gold chain. Yeah. Wow, that's deep, man. This is like great music criticism here. Sometimes I feel like we really know what we're doing. That's not true. Hannah Cohen. Hannah Cohen is the singer, really beautiful stuff.

But Lars, I know you've got one more thing that you want to play. I kind of want to keep it a little strange, a little out of time-ish. It was just announced that Boards of Canada will release its first album in 13 years. Very soon, May 29th. The album's called Inferno, and they dropped an intro track and the track right after it called Prophecy at 1,420 megahertz. I was curious as like, what is 1,420 meghertz? What does that refer to?

And it's called the wow signal. I don't know what that is. Neither did I, until I looked up, and apparently there are some physicists who speculated that extraterrestrial life would try to contact us at this specific radio signal. Oh, my God, I love that. Yeah, right?

Oh, my God. That's brilliant. These pair of songs kind of introduces some new textures. There's guitar, which is not really an instrument that they put into their music, but it's kind of a gothic quality to the guitar playing. And generally, their music is instrumental, but this one sort of has lyrics and seems to be talking about a higher life form coming into consciousness. I know you don't ever listen to the show,

so you wouldn't know that we played the Borders of Canada about them. month ago. Well, actually, it hasn't been that long ago. Well, they had, they had, but this is the beauty of not knowing what you're going to play, because if you told me you were going to play the new boards of Canada, I would say, well, you know, we played them for you. And I don't really care. It's so momentous to have them back. Absolutely. You know, I'm more than happy to play this cut on the show as well. So we'll go out on this. Lars, thank you. As always, always a great hang. Thanks, Robin. It's nice to be here. And you're listening to All Songs Considered. from NPR Music.